Method of rinsing yarns and fabrics in the form of skeins



Aug. 14, 1962 R. R. LAUPMAN 3,049,396

METHOD OF RINSING YARNS AND FABRICS IN THE FORM OF SKEINS Filed July 21, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VEN TORI Robe-r1 R. LAUPMAN WMi Lzkid'Fewi 5&

1962 R. R. LAUPMAN 3,049,396

METHOD OF RINSING YARNS AND FABRICS IN THE FORM OF SKEINS Filed July 21, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIT 9'- 5 3 2s 3 3 I I I I" 777 7 ";//W/ W INVENTORI Rdw'i R. LAUFMAN United States Patent Ofitice 3,049,396 Patented Aug. 14, 1962 3,049,396 METHOD OF RINSING YARNS AND FABRICS IN THE FORM OF SKEINS Robert Ronald Lauprnan, Wijchen, Netherlands, assignor to Gebr. Stork & Cos Apparatenfabriek N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, a corporation of the Netherlands Filed July 21, 1958, Ser. No. 749,981 Claims priority, application Netherlands July 20, 1957 1 Claim. (Cl. 8155.2)

It is known, for washing yarns and fabrics in the form of skeins in washing machines to pass these over reels mounted above the liquid level in the Washing bath. During its passage through the machine the skein to be washed leaves the liquid, runs over the reel and subsequently falls back into the liquid again. The reel may be in the form of a roller against which another roller presses, the passing skein being squeezed out between said rollers. The washing action of such washing machines then resides in the combination of rinsing (the movement of the skein in the rinsing liquid) and soaking.

In the various constructions the accent in the one machine is placed on an intensive rinsing and a brief soaking treatment, While in another machine the soaking treatment is longer and the rinsing treatment briefer. In actual practice it is found that for both components of the treatment there is a minimum. In substantially all cases the rinsing liquid together with the agents contained therein is to be brought into contact with all parts of the skein during the rinsing treatment, so that the rinsing liquid will constantly act on the skein. During this contact the composition of the rinsing liquid changes as a rule, so that after a certain period the liquid in the skein is to be renewed. If, therefore the rinsing treatment is too brief or too little intensive said renewal takes place insufiiciently or irregularly. If the rinsing is intensive but if the period during which the rinsing liquid acts on the skeins between the rinsing passages is too brief, the maximum useful effect of the washing machine is'not reached. The action of the rinsing liquid on the skein is insufficient then. In some types of machines this is com pensated by an excessively intensive and frequent rinsing. The drawback thereof, however, is the chance of the skein being mechanically damaged or undergoing a change in structure.

Especially the frequent squeezing out applied in such machines is unattractive in some cases. This is especially the case during the after-treatment of printed fabrics, which are to be rinsed and fixed in such machines.

On the one hand it is necessary then for the rinsing (or fixing) liquid to be brought into intimate contact with the skeins to be treated, but on the other hand it should especially be avoided that during the rinsing treatment the skein is exposed to too large a pressure be cause, apart from mechanical damage, this may lead to the printed areas smudging the unprinted areas. This is the reason why frequently vats provided with reels are used. The printed webs are either treated then with their beginning and end knotted together (discontinuous proc ess) or are passed as a continuous web helically through the machine with the ends of the successive webs sewed together. Owing to the desirability to avoid a squeezing out a large number of passages over the reel is desired in order to ensure a proper treatment. Besides the throughput rate of the skein through the bath must be relatively large in order to obtain a sutlicient rinsing action when the skein leaves the liquid and falls back in it again. Also during the passage of an auxiliary reel a good rinsing action is obtained when the throughput rate is sufficiently large because the rinsing liquid still contained in the skein when it is drawn upwardly is partly driven out of the skein by said auxiliary reel and flows back along the skein. The use of a round (closed) auxiliary reel may promote this action.

If certain rinsing treatments, such as in the aftertreatment of printed fabrics, are in addition bound to a certain reaction of ingredients from the rinsing bath with the dyes used, so that therefore the total rinsing time is bound up to certain limits, the dimensions of the rinsing machine meeting the demands made may become unattractively large. In order to elucidate this the following should be noted:

In most cases an average pen'pheralspeed of the reel of meters per minute is desired for obtaining a good rinsing action. If in addition for completing a reaction between the rinsing liquid and, for example, the dyes present on the fibre a specific reaction time is desirable, the skein should at the same time cover a corresponding distance through the vat which is alternated by the skein passing a reel.

If for economical reasons the apparatus should always be fully occupied, it appears that such a rinsing machine can only be fully utilized by those concerns that have a need for an after-treatment that corresponds with the output capacity of a product or series of products which require one and the same kind of treatment.

Now it has been found in actual practice that there is a great demand for a continuous washing machine which has a much smaller capacity and which all the same operates continuously.

According to the invention this demand can be met by periodically reversing the direction of movement of a skein during its passage through a rinsing bath or a bath for another treatment.

The method according to the invention is based on the insight that the rinsing action at the time when the skein passes a reel can be split up into theree components, to Wit:

( l) The pulling of the skein out of the liquid;

(2) The passing of the skein over the reel;

(3) The falling back of the skein into the liquid.

(1) When the skein is pulled out of the liquid the skein is tensioned. Owing to the resultant contraction part of the liquid absorbed by the skein is already squeeezd out of it. Once the liquid in and on the skein is above the liquid level it will flow downwardly under the influence of gravity and partly leave the skein.

If now during the pulling of said skein out of the liquid its direction of movement is reversed the skein will -suddenly relax and partly sink '(fall) back 'into the liquid. The relaxation which takes place will again cause liquid to enter the skein, which liquid is again partly squeezed out of the skein when the skein is again pulled out of the liquid and thus is tensioned aagin. However, a very important side effect takes place here: During the tensioning and relaxation in wet condition of skein-s of fabrics or yarns the structure of said fabric or yarn will greatly change. The curvature of the component fibres is greatly influenced by the variation in tension, while this will lead to the fibres relatively shifting. A change of the curvature of a fibre entails a deformation of its surface which greatly promotes the effect of the rinsing or reaction liquid.

(2) When the skein passes over the reel (without the use of a squeezing roller) substantially no washing action will take place.

(3) When the skein falls back into the liquid an intermittently reversed movement of the skein has a favourable influence on the washing action.

When the skein normally passes over the reel the tensioning and relaxation of the skein takes place one time. By periodically reversing the direction of movement of the skein the tensioning and subsequent relaxation of the skein per passage of the reel may be increased to a great number of times (e.g. This becomes clear if it is borne in mind that during each reversal of the movement of the skeins said tensioning and relaxation takes place both at the side of the skein pulled out of the liquid and at the side of the skein falling back into the liquid.

In the method according to the invention, therefore, the movement of the rinsing liquid along and through the skein is more intensive, the action of the rinsing liquid on the fibre is more favourable and the renewal of the rinsing liquid is better than when a skein normally passes over a reel. The effect per passage over a reel, therefore, increases so that an appreciable smaller number of passages over a reel will suflice than is the case with the existing reel vats.

If the movement of the skein in the method according to the invention is split up into its components: the conveying movement (constant) and the reciprocatory movement (e.g. sinusoidal) it is found that the rinsing intensity is influenced by both components. Within certain limits said components admit of being controlled independently of each other. Said possibility is of great importance because thus the rate of conveyance of the skein over the reel may be adjusted at will. The required rinsing action is obtained by selecting the amplitude of the reciprocatory movement of the skein in accordance with the requirements.

For the selection of the dimensions of a rinsing machine based on the method according to the invention it is possible, therefore, to start from any low conveying speed which determines the output capacity of the machine, without the useful eifect of the machine being lost. This renders it possible to use conveying rates of two meters per minute, if necessary, while the good washing action is retained.

Seeing that the terms conventionally used in textile industry: rinsing, washing, fixing often overlap, it should be noted that all of said treatments amount to bringing the reaction liquid into intensive contact with the skein(s) to be treated and the soaking of said skeins in said liquid, while the timely and complete renewal of the liquid in the skein plays an important part. It will be clear that the method according to the invention excellently lends itself for these treatments as well as for the dyeing of fabrics and yarns, the washing and fulling of woollen fabrics etc.

Though the method according to the invention admits of being mechanically realized in a great many manners a preferred embodiment of a rinsing machine for carrying out this method will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing for elucidating the invention. In said drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic side-view of the rinsing machine;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-section on the line II--II in FIG- URE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a schematic plan view showing the manner in which a skein runs over the reels.

According to the drawing the machine comprises a frame 1 for the driving mechanism of a plurality of reels 3 located above a rinsing vat 2, over which reels the skein 25 to be treated is passed.

Each reel 3 is fixedly secured to a shaft 5 which is rotatably supported in a bearing 6 mounted on the frame 1 and which has its one end provided with a pulley 7 fixedly secured thereto. A transmission rope 10 is passed about the pulleys 7, the guiding pulleys 8 and the driving pulley 9.

The driving pulley 9 forms part of the driving mechanism for reels 3. Said driving mechanism is mounted on a. carriage 11 which by means of guiding rollers 12 is adapted to move to and fro over a guiding rail 13 secured to the frame 1. The driving mechanism comprises a driving motor having a reduction gearing 14, a transmission belt 15, a shaft 16 carrying a large and a small pulley 17 and 18, a transmission belt 19 and a pulley 20 which is keyed on to the same shaft as driving pulley 9.

On the shaft 16 of the driving mechanism an arm 21 is secured, the free end of which is provided with a plurality of coupling means 22' for adjustably and pivotally coupling the arm 21 to the one end of a rod 23 which has its other end pivoted to the frame 1 at 24.

When the driving motor 14- is in operation the reels 3 will be driven via the transmission means e.g. in the direction of the arrow P. At the same time, however, the carriage 11 and the driving mechanism mounted thereon will be reciprocated over the guiding rail 13 because at the same time the arm 21 is rotated by the shaft 16, which arm 21 co-operates with the rod 23. In consequence the reels 3 and the skein 25 passed thereover in the manner shown in FIGURES l and 3 will not be continuously moved in the direction of the arrow P, but each time when the direction of movement of the carriage 11 reverses, the direction of movement of the skein will likewise reverse. The skein 25, therefore, will behave as if a sinusoidal movement is superimposed on its continuous advance which has for its result that each time the advance of the skein over a certain distance alternates by a return movement over a smaller distance. The place of the coupling between the arm 21 and the rod 23 will determine the measure of said advance and return movement as well as the rate of discharge of the skein 25 from the machine.

The effect of the machine is that by each reel 3 the skein 25 will be repeatedly and step-wise pulled out of the liquid in the rinsing vat 2 and will be immersed therein again, so that notwithstanding a small adjustable rate of discharge of the skein 25 from the machine a perfect rinsing action is achieved.

Although the embodiment of the rinsing machine as described is structurally very simple and as a result attractive, it will be clear that for effecting the reciprocatory movement of the skein to be treated as required by the method according to the invention a great many other manners may be chosen. Furthermore it will be clear that wherever in the foregoing mention is made of rinsing this should also be understood to comprise any other treatment of a skein in which the reciprocation of said skein has the same use as in the rinsing treatment. Furthermore it will be clear that the arm 21 may be rotated by a driving mechanism of its own so that not only the stroke of the carriage may be varied but also, independent thereof, the frequency of said stroke. By mounting said separate driving mechanism for the arm 21 on the frame 1 and by pivoting the connecting rod 23 to the carriage 11 it is possible to vary the frequency of the stroke of the carriage during the operation of machine.

I claim:

A method of continuously wet treating yarns and fabrics in rope form, comprising passing the rope of material to be treated at a constant velocity downwardly into and upwardly out of a plurality of treating liquids in succession, and superimposing on the movement of the rope of material at the constant velocity a reciprocal motion in the direction of the length of the rope of material, the velocity of which reciprocal motion is sinusoidal, the peak velocity of the reciprocal motion being greater than the constant velocity, and the frequency of said sinusoidal reciprocal motion being such that each point on the rope of maten'al passes each surface of the liquid through which the net movement of the rope is upward more than once in opposite directions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Blundell May 12, 1896 Gass Oct. 23, 1934 Collins Sept. 8, 1936 McConnell Dec. 22, 1936 Lubberhauzen June 212, 1937 Schrenk June 27, 1950 Battista Aug. 4, 1953 

